An estimated 150 children from River Grove schools received a double demonstration on Arbor Day to show why the observation goes beyond trees and should include the whole living environment.
Environmentalists Chris Brennan and Cathy Blecker took turns on April 27 feeding lunch (mouse was on the menu) to their birds — a red-tailed hawk and barred owl — with children squealing at the live demonstration.
“He’s a little shy,” explained Blecker when the barred owl’s feeding time came up. “He doesn’t like to eat in front of people.”
The village, which includes a wide swatch of forest preserve and trees, goes all out at the annual celebration, held behind Rhodes School, at 8931 Fullerton Ave. Brent Leder, president of the River Grove Aesthetic Committee, which organized the event, said this year’s event marked the 24th year celebration locally.
Leading up to the event, the village sponsored bird feeder design contest, with the entries put on display at village hall for people to vote on them, he said.
The celebration also marked the planting of new trees in the park behind Rhodes. The company, CarMax, contributed a grant toward park equipment used in the park and also brought in volunteers who, along with village employees, built the park, Leder said. River Grove Elementary School students Jayla Robles and Zoe Palma were picked to take part in the tree planting.
Trees are “very important for our environment for so many reasons — for wood, for food, for everything else,” said Leder, the village’s former public works director. “So we just want to strive to have the kids see what we’re doing and maybe they’ll follow us down the road and be tree huggers like us.”
River Grove Mayor David Guerin was among the officials taking part in the celebration.
“Trees are important for our village,” he said. “Just growing up, as a lifelong resident, I appreciated having the forest preserve right in my back yard,” he said.
He appreciated the live demonstration, too.
“People kind of get their heads buried in their phone, and you look up and there are these beautiful animals right there,” he said.
That’s definitely one of the goals of Blecker and Brennan, members of Itasca-based Wings and Talons (wingsandtalons.org), founded in 2016 to educate the public about birds of prey.
They spent time after their presentation mingling with children, and answering questions about the birds.
“Our organization is strictly an educational group,” explained Brennan. “All our birds are non-releasable. They all have a disability of some sort that prevents them from thriving in the wild. What we do, in addition to taking care of them the rest of their natural lives, we come out and do educational programming with them. We do small groups, community events. We also go out to Scout groups, church groups, libraries, and things like that.”
Arbor Day aside, it can be difficult to get people to take time to appreciate the natural environment, he acknowledged.
“Absolutely — well, there are so many competing pressures in the world these days for our attention, and it’s tough to get people to take that moment to go outside and experience nature,” he said. “When we experience it, we tend to experience it in a very curated environment. One of the things that we could all do well to take more advantage of is the forest preserve districts we have. You can see so much wildlife, and it’s really an amazing thing.”
Winding up her talk, Blecker, the barred owl in hand, reminded children “to keep those trees growing. Don’t cut them down if they have a hole in it; leave the hole there for owls to live in; and the red tails will be on the branches and use it for a resting point to locate their prey. Enjoy these birds,” she said, “and as long as you give them a tree, they’ll be here forever.”
